Netherlands threatens to cut aid over defence spending

The Dutch government has threatened to stop financial assistance to Uganda if it does not cut defence expenditure, Dutch Minister for Development and Cooperation Evelien Herfkens said on Thursday. "We have signed an agreement with the government to provide aid on condition that the military expenditure is reduced. If the government fails her obligations, we shall all be in trouble. It would be difficult for me to convince the Netherlands parliament to aid Uganda. We shall stop aid," news agencies quoted Herfkens as saying. The Dutch government has recently approved US $38 million in aid for Uganda. Herfkens, who attacked the National Resistance Movement government for extending its transitional period and gagging political parties by advocating a referendum on multi-party politics that was devoid of fairness, said the Dutch government and the IMF had asked Uganda to check corruption and reduce rural poverty in the countryside. She also said Netherlands would lobby the EU to stop military aid to developing countries to bring peace in Africa. Opposition urges withdrawal from DRC Meanwhile, opposition political leaders have condemned Uganda's presence in DRC and urged a troop withdrawal following a statement by President Yoweri Museveni on last week's clashes between Ugandan and Rwandan forces in Kisangani. "Let it be known by all Ugandans that the people of Uganda and Rwanda have never supported their leaders' involvement in Congo," a release signed by leaders of the Democratic Party, Uganda People's Congress, the Free Movement, Conservative Party, Justice Forum and National Democrats Forum stated. "Uganda should pull out of Congo and let the Congolese resolve their internal problems. The RPA (Rwandese Patriotic Army) must also pull out. Let both countries ensure that their borders are secured", the statement, reported by the 'New Vision' newspaper on Friday, said. Party leaders said Ugandans and Rwandans had never given their leaders a mandate to become involved in Congo, but that a small clique appeared to want, and benefit from, the Congo war or wish to establish some narrow ethnic hegemony in the Great Lakes. "Isn't this (Kisangani) proof that there is no rebellion by the Congolese against Kabila but rather an invasion of that country by Uganda and Rwanda who now 'want to mobilise' a rebellion?" they said.